Fleur-de-lis

Personal Hell: Side B

Vanitas's p.o.v

Another day at the castle, another day of being a broke peasant..

It was my day to close again and I got the usual annoying rundown from Raimi. I hated this place with a passion. The clientele were sleezy, my coworkers sucked, and I occasionally wondered if my boss was a figment of my imagination with what little interaction I've had with him.

Still though...

I need the money so I'd tolerate it all for as long as this was my only option. This and the money Pedro and I were making in the fight club was actually accumulating into something. We actually had quite a bit of money saved up. The plan was to get enough money for a decent car but Pedro was stripped of his license years ago and...I never learned. We'd figure that out when the time came, I suppose.

I finish putting everything away, cleaning up and hit the lights before exiting out the back as was the standard procedure. Once out back into the alley I see a very tall and pretty young looking black man leaning against a wall. He looks up at me, having seemingly waited for me to leave. I raise a brow in confusion.

"Can I help you?" I ask, not really sensing a threat from him.

He makes his way over to me with sort of a swagger in his step. "I...uh...heard you like to do favors for people with money."

I blink once before letting out an audible annoyed sigh and walking away. The man quickly goes to block my path.

"Hey, woah, what's the problem?" He questions. "I'm good for money, if that's the issue."

I rub my temples to alleviate the headache that was quickly forming. "It was only one time!" I say, clearly frustrated. "How the hell does one handjob spin out into rumors like this for a whole year!?"

He looks at me with an apologetic look. "Sorry, I just heard that..." He trails off nervously. "Look, I didn't mean any disrespect." He starts. "I'm honestly just trying to discreetly lose my V-card. I heard of a couple of people who'd do it in a Facebook post, checked a few of the people out over a few days and you were the only one that didn't look diseased or...washed up."

I furrow my brow at him. "What? Why're you trying to lose your virginity to a random person on the street?"

He scratches his head awkwardly. "Because...people talk, you know? And I just wanna have some experience."

I suddenly remember that this was Kansas and despite non-heteronormative things being tolerated in independence, us gays weren't well liked and still ran the risk of being disowned by our families.

"Your family doesn't know that you're gay, do they?" I question.

He slowly shakes his head no.

"And how old are you?" I continue.

"Nineteen." He says.

I sigh, annoyed by the fact that his bad choices were the result of having a family that couldn't be trusted which was way more relatable than I wanted it to be. He also might've gotten lucky that it was me that he chose to ask first. Who knows what trouble he could get into getting involved with some of the pervs in this area. If I told him no, he'd likely be put at risk of becoming a statistic. But...honestly I was a little afraid to say yes as well. I hadn't actually had sex with anyone since John and that was three years ago.

Taking a good look at him, he wasn't bad looking. Darkish skin, tall, a semi-athletic build and he seemed to be well read. I could think of worse people to break my dry spell. Maybe it was time for me to make some progress as well.

"Look... Because I can relate to your situation, I'll help you out, free of charge." I offer.

"Are you serious?" He questions, taken aback slightly.